Doctors sued over ‘dangerous’ autism treatment

Dad challenges 2 physicians’ alternative therapy

March 04, 2010|By Patricia Callahan, Tribune reporter

The father of a 7-year-old Chicago boy who was diagnosed as a toddler with autism has sued the Naperville and Florida doctors who treated his son, alleging they harmed the child with "dangerous and unnecessary experimental treatments."

James Coman and his son were featured last year in "Dubious Medicine," a Tribune series that examined risky, unproven treatments for autism based on questionable science.

The defendants — family-practice physicians Dr. Anjum Usman of Naperville and Dr. Daniel Rossignol of Melbourne, Fla. — are prominent in the Defeat Autism Now! movement, which promotes many of the alternative treatments the Tribune scrutinized. Both have spoken to groups of parents at autism conferences and trained other physicians in their methods.

Coman alleged in Cook County Circuit Court that Usman and Rossignol prescribed "medically unnecessary and unjustified" chelation treatments, designed to force the body to excrete toxic metals, even though the child did not suffer from heavy metal poisoning. The treatments carry a risk of kidney failure, the lawsuit alleges.

"This is a big business, and there are a lot of people who are willing to put aside the safety of children to make money off of scared, desperate parents," Coman said in an interview.

Rossignol prescribed these treatments solely over the phone, having never seen the child in person, according to the lawsuit. A representative from Rossignol's office said the doctor could not comment on pending litigation. Usman did not return calls seeking comment.

Coman also alleged that Doctor's Data Inc., the St. Charles laboratory that performed the tests Usman and Rossignol used to justify these treatments, was negligent for using an "improper method" of testing.

The lawsuit spotlights a test often used to diagnose metal poisoning in children with autism. To conduct the test, doctors give children a chelation drug that forces the body to let go of some of the metals that exist in everyone — healthy or sick — in trace amounts. Those metals show up in urine, which is sent to a lab for screening.

In the case of Coman's son, Doctor's Data then compared those drug-provoked results to a reference range calculated for people who had never been given a chelation drug. Based on this apples-to-oranges comparison, Coman's son was found to have elevated levels of lead, aluminum, tin and mercury — some with results Doctor's Data listed in the "90 percent range of metal contamination," according to the lawsuit.

The first of many of these tests that found metal poisoning was performed on Coman's son when he was just 2 years old and "had not been exposed to mercury or any other heavy metal in significant quantity," the suit alleged.

The chief executive of Doctor's Data did not return calls seeking comment.

The treatments Coman's son received are also the subject of a bitter divorce and custody battle between Coman and his wife. She has been a proponent of the therapies for the boy, according to divorce court records.